Tag: mba

Over the Winter Quarter, our Technology and Innovation Strategy class at Kellogg culminated in a final research paper. The paper looked at the shuttering of Google Glass and what Google’s next steps should be. As part of this, I got to look deeply into the current state of Virtual Reality, which I have been following and waiting for (hello Oculus!) since I was a child, and Augmented Reality. I will be posting portions of the paper (it’s quite long) in digestible chunks here over the next week. Our team was comprised of Melissa Caldwell, Raghu Chirravuri, Olga Gordon, Jeff Hoffman, and me, Michael Nguyen.

While numerous firms are engaging in VR or AR headset platforms, firms that have major corporate backing to avoid being acquired and have the finances to pose a legitimate threat to Google are discussed below and in summary Table A.

Sony and Valve are similar in their focus on gaming entertainment through VR headsets. While Sony has its own console platform (Playstation), Valve focuses on the PC market, creating a consistent gaming experience for PC gamers regardless of hardware manufacturer or operating system through its Steam gaming platform. In March 2015, both companies revealed they are planning to release their products by the end of 2015. Sony will develop and manufacture its own headset, while Valve will work with partners such as HTC to release headsets, similar to Oculus and Samsung in producing Gear VR. With both firms’ focus on entertainment, these are greater threats to Oculus, discussed below, rather than Google AR and VR.

Facebook (Oculus Rift – Virtual Reality)

The Oculus headset is a tethered (wired) unit that requires a high-end PC to power, creating a sit-down user experience. Oculus has gained traction in VR and AR by creating an ecosystem of applications and new hardware add-ons that add functionality to the device such as body movement and finger tracking for user interfaces.

Oculus initially had a pure focus on gaming and simulation rather than productivity, making it less of a threat to Google. However, with the Facebook purchase of Oculus VR and the announcement of the partnership with Samsung to release Gear VR (more detail below), the Oculus platform is more of a threat. Aside from its current dominance as a social platform over Google+, Facebook has also launched search, advertising, and portal-like products that combined form a significant threat to Google as the default source of information of the masses.

Oculus has released several developer headset kits to the community, with the first consumer-focused version expected in 2015. Oculus has repeatedly stated the consumer product must be oriented to the mass-market not only in functionality but also price. While Facebook does not have direct experience in producing hardware at mass levels, Samsung, its partner on the Gear VR, does. Thus, we believe that Oculus will be able to deliver a mass-market headset more quickly than other competitors.

Samsung (Oculus Rift / Gear VR – Virtual & Augmented Reality)

Samsung’s Gear VR is an untethered (wireless) headset that requires the Galaxy Note 4 mobile phone. Note 4 users simply insert the device into the headset. Using Oculus technology, the Gear VR has an advantage over Oculus because it supports AR through its outward facing camera. Unlike other AR solutions, Gear VR cannot not reasonably be worn outdoors. While Gear VR does not compare to full-powered VR solutions such as Oculus, the partnership creates two concerns for Google. First, Samsung is a dominant global hardware partner for Facebook, with experience in display and mobile technologies. With Samsung as a manufacturing partner, Oculus would have an advantage in merchandising over other platforms. Second, the partnership creates more exposure to the Oculus platform for users and app developers. The Gear VR was released in December 2014 at $199 (non-mass market focused “Innovator Edition”); based on Samsung’s aggression in the mobile market, we can expect rapid iterations on the platform and increased compatibility with new phones.

(This was written by my friend and teammate Justin but reposting it here after it was originally posted at the Kellogg Blog)

Kellogg’s Marketing Conference is by far one of the largest events at Kellogg. More than 500attendees, hotshot panelists from companies like Google, SC Johnson, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsico and Uber, incredible keynote speakers and the vibrancy of the student leadership team make this an exciting and informative event.

For the first time, this year’s marketing conference featured a creative session competition hosted by the Google Brand Studio. Six teams of four members competed to solve a marketing prompt delivered the day of the competition.We were excited to participate because of our interest in the rapidly evolving tech industry. Prior to Kellogg, each of us had spent some time in the tech industry:

Shriansh worked with mobile and financial software

Josh ran several startups in the internet technology space

Michael served as COO for Vietnam’s first social networking website

Justin worked in venture capital and product development for startups in mobile and clean-tech.

The ‘crazy, fun and different’ nature of the Creative Lab began with how the challenge prompt itself was chosen. The 500-odd audience members had to vote (with the results being live-streamed right in front of us) on their choice between two challenges. The winning prompt was basically given to us on the spot for us to work on.

The session itself was 35 minutes of brutal creativity. Spurred on by three of Google’s best, we brainstormed and came up with a solution. Using some of the tools and methodologies used at Google, we worked in our team to flesh out ideas, challenge thought processes and uncover insights to form a strategic solution to the prompt.

The four of us definitely felt the pressure as the clock was winding down to present in front of the other five teams and the three leaders from Google’s Brand Studio. In the last few minutes we wrote down our strategy and how we’d execute it, while also figuring out who’d tell the story.

Through the lab, we learned that creativity can be rapid, structured and apparently time-boxed. We experienced first-hand how rapid brainstorming floods the mind with ideas. Frankly, we feel that being left with more time to ponder the challenge might have derailed the intuition and raw expression that came forward in our strategy. Given how much fun we had, we’ll definitely carry these methods into our classrooms and future organizations.

After each of the six teams presented, the Google representatives selected three teams to move forward and present to the conference attendees. Afterward, the audience and judges voted using a phone app. After tallying the votes, the speaker announced, “And the winner of the Google Creative Lab competition is … Team 1! Michael, Shriansh, Josh, and Justin!” We were extremely excited!

We won a trip to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., where we will present a more detailed version of the idea to a few Google Executives.

Oh. And we won the Kellogg Marketing Conference shoe!

Justin Saeheng ‘16 is currently a student in the MMM program. Prior to Kellogg, he spent two years at a venture capital firm in the silicon valley focused on clean-tech, semiconductor, telecoms and sensors. He worked closely with startups through product innovation, development and commercialization as well as strategic market entries into Asia and Europe. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Shriansh Shrivastava ’16 (@Shriansh) is currently a student in the MMM program. He grew up in India, spent 10 years in the UK (undergrad + an awesome job working with unreleased cellphones + then worked on a mental health suicide prevention project – using smartphones, of course) and finally spent a year in Canada working for an ATM software company. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Joshua Borin ’15 is currently a student in Kellogg’s One-Year MBA program. Before Kellogg, Joshua ran a small business, survived the rise and fall of an e-commerce company and made an industry-noticing impact on stopping trade of counterfeit goods online. He loves helping small companies overcome the challenges that arise during rapid growth and scaling. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

Michael Nguyen ’16 is currently a student in the MMM program. In the past he served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Cyworld Vietnam, the country’s first social network; co-founded Mimo, a popular Twitter-like service in Vietnam; and helped RedOctane launch the Guitar Hero video game franchise. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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I write whatever I feel like, and often do so foolishly. Opinions here are always my own unless explicitly mentioned otherwise.
Professionally, I am a startup warrior and I hold a MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern). I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (California).